(Ringgold) — A company that announced a second round of layoffs this week got most of the grant money they were originally promised, but not all of it.
Morgan Olson received a one-point-two million dollar grant from the Virginia Tobacco Commission in 2019 when they announced plans to spend 58 millions dollars to renovate the former IKEA property into a factory to make large vans and trucks. They planned to hire 740 workers at the Cane Creek Industrial Park.
Jordan Butler, Tobacco Region Opportunity Fund Manager & Public Relations Director with the Virginia Tobacco Commission, says Morgan Olson asked for a partial performance to-date reimbursement in 2022. The Commission calculated their performance up to that point and set the partial reimbursement at $770,775. The hiring goals for that partial disbursement were met so no funds will have to be returned to the Commission.
Morgan Olson announced this week the layoffs of 139 workers. The move comes less than a year after Morgan Olson laid off 435 workers. In October-2022, Morgan Olson had 612 workers in October, 2022.
Butler says changes to Commission policy will prevent this from happening again. All new agreements include a maintenance clause that requires the jobs be maintained through the performance period, and another clause that allows for only one disbursement at the end of that performance period.